My husband's experience with a haunted house in Idaho

[I realize this telling is a little jerky, because I kept having to consult with my husband on various details, to be sure I got the story right, to the best of my ability.]

Ok this really happened to my husband in Idaho around 1988.  A family of 5 people had rented a house and after living there a while, things got too creepy from being haunted and decided to just move out as fast as they could. My husband was one of the dozen or more helping them move out.   Most of these details they learned later that night, when they shared these stories amongst themselves while resting, at the new house.

Two of the helpers were sisters who were actually psychic. There were five or six vehicles, and it was autumn but not yet chilly.  Its a two story house with a basement, on a normal neighborhood street with houses on each side. 

So the helpers, once they arrive around 6pm, its getting dark out, and they start moving furniture into  the trucks as the family continued to pack frantically.  At some point one of the helpers needs to make a phone call, a family members says the phone is in the living room, pointing that way.  The helper goes to the front room, which by this time was empty of furniture, a couple packed boxes still to be taken out...but no phone.  The helper looked behind the drapes, behind the boxes, in the closet, no phone anywhere, so he figured the phone must have been packed already, shrugged and went back to moving stuff out. 

Much later, hours later, during a last walk-through to make sure things hadn't been missed, this helper walks into the now completely empty living room to check for anything left behind, and there, in that empty room, on the floor, along the wall, was the phone.....where he knew it had not been before.  So he picks up the phone to make a call...and the phone is COLD AS ICE.  His words were, 'as cold as if someone had put it in the freezer'.  

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Another helper packed the main floor bathroom, the shower curtain, the bath-rug, all the toiletries, stacking the filled boxes out in the hallway to be moved to the truck by someone else.  She checks the medicine cabinet, under the sink, inside the tub, makes sure she got everything out, she turns out the light and closes the bathroom door, picks up a box and takes it out.

Much later, during the final walk-through, that same woman is checking the rooms for anything left behind.  She knows the bathroom is empty, because she packed it herself, but as she is walking down the hallway, she notices the light of the bathroom is on, under the closed bathroom door.  So she opens the bathroom door to turn off the light...and on the mirror, in lipstick, is written "We are ARCO".  So she calls to the female renter of the house to come see, and both agree neither of them own that shade of lipstick color.

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Upstairs, others were hastily packing up bedrooms, making sure closets were packed and windows securely closed, setting full boxes in the hallway to get taken downstairs. 

Later, during the final walk-through, someone opens the bedroom doors, one by one, walks in, checks closet one last time, turns out the light, closes door after them.  One of the bedrooms, he opens the door, the light is already on, and the window-shade is pulled all the way down, and there is a single wire clothes hanger that has been poked through the shade, as tho someone had pinched the shade and pushed the wire through both thicknesses of the shade.  He leaves it there, turns off the room light, closes the door.  (Later, at the new house, the owners confirm, they never owned any wire hangers, theirs were all plastic hangers.) 

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Now, its getting to the end, most stuff packed in boxes and on trucks or in cars. (There were at least a couple of cars getting loaded out in the back alley as well.)  People are throughout the house, some lights are on, some are off.  Upstairs most bedroom lights are off but the hall light is on, for instance.  Outside its fully dark, about 11 pm, but there is a little light from the moon and porch lights dimly from neighboring houses.  People are loading vehicles by the light of the porch light and one street lamp, people carrying boxes and items out have been trying all evening to just move quickly, to focus on the packing and moving so as not to notice too many of the obviously creepy things going on in the house around them. The mood is tense, and people are tired and nervous.  

AND THEN SUDDENLY THE ENTIRE HOUSE GOES DARK. Freaked out, screaming, every person runs for the door nearest them, so half end up out the front door, half out the back door.

Husband is with the group in back, they are clustered together, staring back at the dark house, everyone asking what is going on and grasping at each others arms and clothes out of fear. 

AND THEN THEY HEAR A LOUD SCREAM.  To the group in back, it sounds like it came from someone out front; to the group in front, it sounds like it came from in back!  So both groups of people run towards the other, meeting at the side of the house, hearts pounding with adrenaline, no one knowing what was going on, everyone is talking excitedly but quietly when...

SUDDENLY THE LIGHTS IN THE HOUSE GO ON AGAIN.  But...they notice that now, all the lights that had been on were now off, and the lights that were off were now on. The upstairs, all the bedroom windows were lit up...but going in, the upstairs hall light was off.  

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At this point, since everyone is outside anyway, the renters decide they can't handle anything else, that's it, just lock the doors and lets go, anything left inside is not important.  So half go to the vehicles in the front, and half go to the vehicles in the back (all in a clustered groups, no one wanted to be left alone at that point). My husband was in the group in back. So was the woman renter. As vehicles are starting their engines, she goes to close and lock the back door of the house, reaching for the door handle but she stops.  The back porch light is off, but the mudroom light is on, and the kitchen, beyond it, is well lit too. And there sitting on the kitchen counter, roughly 20 feet from the back door, IS HER PURSE. 

 She stands there, outside the door, silent for a moment, as she stares at her purse on the counter, sitting there like it is bait on a hook. She is afraid to step foot in the house, but knowing there is no way you can leave a purse behind.  A purse holds everything, credit cards, to-do lists, photos of the children.

My husband and a couple other helpers notice her and goes to her to see what is wrong. She tells them, her purse is in there, its right there, able to be seen clearly from the doorway, and she is afraid to go get it but she can't leave it behind.

So my husband, he decides he will be the one to go in and get the purse, just real quick, in and out, and in full view of everyone watching from the doorway. It can't be that far, maybe 20 feet from the door to the purse. Should be easy, right?  

So my husband goes, quick, easy, through the mudroom, into the kitchen, grabs the purse quick and turns back toward the door with purse tucked under his arm...and suddenly he feels two icy cold hands on his shoulders, heavy, very heavy, holding him back.  Moving toward the front door is like he is walking in wet sand, like he is in slow motion, and the short walk to the purse that took only seconds, now took much longer to get back to the safety of the people outside.  His heart was pounding in his chest, the kitchen and hall lights seemed to be far too bright as he he fought hard to get back outside, fighting against the cold hands holding him back. Once outside, the three others said he looked extremely pale. He says he felt pretty shaky at that point.

Ok now they lock the back door, leaving all the lights on inside, no way was anyone going back inside that house tonight.  They secure the loads on the trucks and cars and they leave, driving together down the street to the new house.  The woman renter, the wife, she is driving alone in her car, leading the procession of cars, trying not to get too far ahead because she knows not all the drivers know the way to the new place, but she is a little ways ahead, and SUDDENLY HER STEERING WHEEL STOPS WORKING....AND HER BRAKES. 

 The car is still moving, maybe 30 mph, she panics (as would I in her situation!) she can't steer, can't brake, but straight ahead the road ends in a field, so her car ends up stopped, 50 feet out in the field, she turns off the key quickly and reaches for the door handle to get out of the car.  But the car door won't open! Its unlocked but it won't open!  She really starts freaking out, screaming, crying, yanking at the door handle, pounding on the window to get out, just from fear....and her husband runs up to her car door, and he yanks on the door handle from the outside and its not working either, then my husband runs to the passenger door side and EXACTLY the moment he opens the passenger side door, the driver's side door finally opens as well. 

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Ok so my husband and the two renters are standing next to a car in a field, late at night, in the dark, and all the others in the procession park their cars and run to the car in the field.  Now the two psychic sisters speak up and say they have determined that, somehow, the family's pet hamster, whose cage is in this lead car driven by the woman, is somehow possessed and has caused the car malfunction.   

Now, its been 25 years since this happened, so husband is not clear on what happened exactly next, but its possible they decided to let the hamster out of the cage, to go free into the field. He doesn't remember that they killed the hamster but that is also possible. After freeing, or killing the hamster, the car worked fine, the male renter drove the car out of the field and the procession went on to the new house without any further problems. My husband says this does not imply that the hamster caused the issues at the house, just the car. 

Every day for three weeks after that, my husband was drawn, compelled beyond his own will, to drive past that haunted house two or three times a day for three weeks, to stop in the street for five or ten minutes, JUST TO STARE AT THAT CREEPY HOUSE.        'The End' 

Yummy artisan bread 'Sicilian' from the Hy Vee in Faribault

 

Ok its way past time for an explanation of why I have a photo of a loaf of artisan bread on my blog.

I have ADD.  This means, among other things, that my memory doesn't work really well. So I am always keeping notepads of notes, calendaring every little event past, present and future, and at the time, this was a handy way to help me to remember where I could go back and get this delicious bread, and that it exists, in case I ever wish to try to duplicate its salty beauty.  

[I think they brushed on those tips some Toasted Sesame Oil before baking; I love Toasted Sesame Oil, my favorite condiment.] 

But I discovered it at a grocery far from my home, 2.5 hours into our 11.5 hour trip home to Kansas, to bury my mother, who died on Memorial Day, May 28, 2012. 

Now unemployed for 5 years, 2 and a half months, and how we get by, and why, in some ways, our lives are better for it.

 I am really lucky that husband's job has been steady and solid and well-paying and that he is good at what he does, so we have never yet been homeless or hungry.  We did have to accept money from my awesome sister a few times when things came up, car repairs or money for gas to go home for a funeral.

I looked on my resume, yep, I last had any job on November 29, 2006.  

I am unemployed over 5 years now. 

I have my Associate of Applied Science Degree in Computer Aided Drafting Technology, from ITT Tech in Boise, Idaho, (using the AutoCAD software)  18 months and thousands of dollars of debt, to learn my chosen field, graduated back in 1992.  I have several years of experience doing that work, too, at more than 7 companies, using my skills for everything from layouts for biodiesel and ethanol plants to convenience stores to the glass windows of highrise skyscrapers in two cities; I have drawn up the plans for several municipal wastewater treatment plants in Poland and the USA, and I had a few months drawing at a firm that built huge metal holding tanks for oil refineries and for Kraft cheese sauce. So I have the degree, I have the experience.  Yet I couldn't find a job!

I did look for work for three years before I gave up.  I don't get any Unemployment money (it ran out years back) I don't get Social Security, nor Disability, not even Food Stamps.   And we get by on his single paycheck. Thank goodness we don't have kids!

So here we are, 20 years after Ron and I graduated from ITT Tech, and we are still paying on our student loans!!  I cannot get a job in my field, and Ron's current job has nothing to do with what he went to school for. Its ironic.

I look at the Help Wanted ads now, on occasion, just curious, sometimes I will see one ad, or two, for my skills and training, and I know there will be 90+ people who send in their resume for that position, and I know that there will be 30 people spending time and gas to go and sit down and do their best to convince the employer that they are the one best fit for that single available position.  

Job hunting is expensive, too.  Especially with just one car.  Gas and added miles on the car, drycleaning costs on interview clothing, buying interview clothing and shoes, resume copies, haircuts, makeup....it adds up.  No more for me, its too expensive.

Nope, I stay unemployed so I don't have to afford a work wardrobe, a second car with its own insurance/maintenance/fuel costs, haircuts, makeup, work shoes, special lunches that can be microwaved and won't stink up the office and your breath, its all just so complicated and expensive!  Its expensive to have a job!!

Back in the 90's, there were always dozens of job ads for drafters like me, it was a better time.  Then, late 90's, companies got a new idea:  they would make their company look better to their investors/stockholders by laying off a percentage of their workforce and making the remainder work harder.  It was called downsizing.  They didn't quite grasp that that percentage they laid off would mean that, since everyone was doing it, that in short order, there were large amounts of people unemployed, people who therefore could not afford to purchase the items/services those very companies created or provided. Downsizing actually damages the sales numbers for companies a little down the road.  So now, the hot trend isn't downsizing, its Job Creation.  Ironic, isn't it?

We did have a house we were buying, way back when, we were there for 12 years before we sold it barely in time before we got foreclosed on. When was that, 2005 or 2006, somewhere in there. Stressful times.  We sold our beloved house even though we didn't want to, barely covering what we owed on it, and moved to an apartment we found that would accept our large German Shepherd so at least we wouldn't have to give her up.  I have firsthand advice that if you ever need lawn or gardening tools, check Craigslist, those who have to suddenly move from foreclosed house to apartment are eager to sell such items.

When we were packing, I sent Ron to Sam's Club, to buy a box of industrial size heavy duty trash bags, we packed clothes, blankets, towels in them, and lots of other unbreakable things like the empty tupperware, lots of our office supplies, lots of the bathroom items went into their own trashbag. Gallon ziplocs to keep the small stuff together in the larger bags.  And glass items I wrapped in the industrial version of Saranwrap that restaurants use, also from Sam's, it provided just enough buffer to keep glass from breaking just from hitting glass in the same box, so we didnt have to buy packing material. And we considered buying a van from Craigslist to move with, then just sell it again after the move, but we didn't. We found a couple guys with a truck instead, for the big stuff. 

It was a great help that when we moved, I was unemployed.  I didn't have to worry about job, I could just pack stuff, for weeks ahead, and months after the move, I had the time to both unpack and sleep a full 8 hours each night. Moving is stressful and painful.

  

Now, for us, life is ok.  We have one car we bought new back in 2002, a gas saving Prius hybrid. We keep it properly maintenanced so its still going strong, a decade old but paid off.  And just in case, when we found this place, our rental place, I made sure it was in walking distance of bus service, so if the car doesn't start, Ron can still get to his job. No risking losing his job, its the only thing keeping us afloat.

We live a small but comfortable life.  No second car, so I am stuck home every day unless I take the bus. No Winter Solstice gifts for us, no birthday gifts either.  No house decorating, most of our furniture came from Ikea or used, from Craigslist.  And no credit cards at all.  We got out from under credit cards over a decade ago. Its hard, living paycheck to paycheck with no credit cards to fall back on, but in the long run, it costs us a lot less money...well at first it didn't.  Because we didn't have credit cards, at first we got a lot of fees every month for Insufficient Funds !! It was horrible!!  It really helped a lot when we switched our banking to Ing Direct, because that has NO OVERDRAFT FEES at all, so when we do go over our balance, its ok, because our account has anOverdraft Line of Credit. It means instead of a flat fee, the little bit we go over, they charge us a tiny percentage instead.  Last month that amount they charged us was $2.80.  Much better than $30 x 5 or more, every month.  I recommend it highly.

No eating out other than Mcdonalds or BK or Taco Bell, and that not often.  For our 19th wedding anniversary, we splurged and went to a real sit-down restaurant: Denny's!  And for Valentine's Day, well, we do celebrate that, but see, we make it affordable. Every year he goes to Godiva and buys us an assorted box of dark chocolates from Godiva, one of the special Valentine ones....on the DAY AFTER Valentine's Day. So its half off its original price, that way.   :) 

We have bills like everyone else, I finally convinced Ron that we would be better off without cable-tv of any sort. We kept the Netflix (we haven't been to a movie theater in 5 years) and we kept just enough cable, Comcast's $8.95 Basic cable to let us see the local channels without investing in one of those digital transition boxes, since all TV waves are now digital.  Rabbit ears aren't enough any more. The $8.95 a month for Basic gets us 17 channels of content, including the Weather Channel, two shopping channels, and the handful of wonderful local PBS channels, as well as your standard NBC CBS ABS Fox as well as WGN and CW.

We had had Comcast for internet and landline phone and $80 worth of cable a month, we looked over the options and cut it down.  Stopped the landline and switched to cellphones only, one for each of us, a special affordable deal we found on walmart.com with a 2 year contract. Switched our internet over to Centurylink, works fine. Its always annoying to have to update all your contacts with your new phone numbers and internet addresses, isn't it?

Good thing I am unemployed so I have the time to spare to deal with that.

 Its nice how much my cooking skills have improved tho, now I have the time to plan meals, browse cookbooks and recipes online, and learn about healthier options.

I found local organic beef and pork is not much more costly per pound than the ones at Cub Foods. We use Farmonwheels.net in Kenyon, MN; they come to the weekly St. Paul downtown Farmer's Market..even on Saturday in the winter.  You can check their price list at the link at the bottom of their webpage. Their meat is all flash-frozen at the time of butchering. 

A lot of food savings is from buying and fixing whole foods, real meat and vegetables and fruit.  The expensive way is the faster convenience foods in packages and boxes. Why buy Bisquick when its just flour, baking soda, salt and oil?  I can do so much with meat, raw vegetables and a few staples.  Frozen spinach and frozen broccoli, I do use those, I keep lots of them in the freezer.  We get huge family size packages of raw unfrozen salmon from Sam's Club, then I cut them into chunks at home, put them on a cookie sheet seperated for a few hours, then put frozen into ziplocs so I can take out just one or two for our meals, and that way they arent frozen in one huge chunk of 5 servings. 

Convenience foods became popular when families had two wage earners.  If you are home unemployed you shouldn't need the time-saving but expensive convenience foods, right?  If you are home you have the time to chop vegetables and plan meals, the time to bake the breakfast oatmeal cookies from scratch and freeze the extras in Ziplocs. A few seconds in the microwave each morning, and yum hot chewy breakfast cookie with milk or tea. (I put dark-chocolate chips in mine.)  Oatmeal is good for you!

 Homemade noodles are flour and egg and salt, roll them out, cut in strips with a rolling pizza cutter, and boil in flavored or salted water.  Or a vegan version of homemade noodles is flour and canned pumpkin and salt. 

These days I do more vegetable roasting (the oven heat helps warm the house) and using my Nesco roaster as a slow-cooker, add the meat and Better Than Boullion the night before, chop the vegetables and add them in the morning, make pasta or rice to go with it when Ron gets home and there's plenty left over for him to take to work for lunches. And slow-cooking helps humidify the dry winter months. The Nesco brand is so nice because the heating elements are on the side, not the bottom, so no burnt bottoms ever, and the temperature selector is more precise than 'crockpots' are. My meals are so much better with my Nesco roaster than they were when I just had my crockpot.  And yes I bought my Nesco used, from Craigslist.

Turns out vegetable roasting is so easy (you need a cookie sheet with a lip so the oil doesnt drip off) just cut up almost any vegetable in chunks, coat in olive oil, and roast.  Several good articles with details are on the web. Its not just potatoes, there's beets, sweet potatoes, carrots, cabbage you can roast, onions just cut them in half, coat in oil and lay cut side down, oh yum, roasting gives you a brown crisper part and often some caramelization that you cannot get from steaming.  You can roast green beans, eggplant, squash, brussels sprouts...the list goes on and on.  I hear some will manage to make a potato-chip-like substitute from Kale leaves, roasted.  But I havent gotten around to trying that one.

A good starter page for roasting is here

http://www.salon.com/2010/03/13/how_to_master_roasted_vegetables/

Since money is always tight, I save money where I can.  So all summer I go nude to cut back on laundry costs, and in winter I wear my cheap sweats for many days in a row.  Ron gets his clothes from thrift stores, his work shoes too usually.  Couple weeks ago was the first time in years he got brand new shoes for work, from JCPenney.  He had forgotten how much it hurts the feet to break in completely-new shoes.  :) 

Ron never gets a haircut, he keeps his beautiful hair long, halfway down his back, he prefers it long and hey it saves us money. Same for me, I kept mine long and uncut for years til last spring, I had it cut short by a professional, with long bangs, and now I just cut the bangs every few weeks.  

I think I will have to go in to get another paid cutting soon, tho.  Aw darn.

I kept a lot of the gardening supplies from when we had the house, I am planning to do some container gardening this summer, just the cost of seed and potting soil.  I use Johnny's Seeds, they are in Maine so I know their seeds will do well in my cold Minnesota climate.  Fresh cucumbers and summer squash, maybe some nice kale too.  And radishes, Johnny's sells seeds for little round pink radishes.  Fun, see?  http://www.johnnyseeds.com/c-630-colored-round.aspx and purple green beans and purple broccoli.... oh I do love Johnny's.

Now if only I could get Ron to stop drinking soda.....

Robin Pierce

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An update from 10/25/2013

Yes, I'm still unemployed since 2006, and yes, my husband's pay from his job of 15 years is still too much to qualify for food stamps. We are doing ok, lots of people are worse off than we are.

Now, the paid-off car needs $6k in repairs, so instead of fixing it (or buying another car) Ron takes the bus to work each day, we get the monthly bus card, its cheaper that way. Bus stops a few yards from our rental, and we use that for getting to the grocery store and farmer's market, too. We still live paycheck to paycheck, been to a movie theatre twice in 6 years. We live small, sure, but we are okay so far. We try to eat healthier, and I have the time to cook and bake from scratch, that really helps. Since its turned cold, most nights our place smells like roasted vegetables; cabbage, carrots, Brussels sprouts, winter squash; roasting makes vegetables so delicious and the oven's heat helps keep the place warm so we can keep the thermostat lower.

just a test post on my new blog, just ignore that woman behind the curtain

Test post to my new blog, let's see how this goes.